Fun Facts About Vikings

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Are you interested in history? What about Scandinavian history?

If you are coming to Sweden to visit or to study, it is impossible not to see some cultural references or silly souvenirs referring to Vikings! Even though, today’s Denmark was the first land Vikings created their culture and community, all of Scandinavia has had experienced Viking legacy between 8-11 AD. I have dug into the Internet to find our some fun and interesting facts about Vikings which I think you will enjoy reading!

Contrary to the general belief; The helmets used by the Vikings did not have horns.

The Vikings paid great attention to their care, although they were often called barbarians. Archaeological studies have found razors for shaving, combs for hair, and tweezers for fur.

It is also known that they have been bathing at least once a week…

They collected a fungi, called fungus, that grew on the tree bark, and put it in the urine after they had been dried. The Vikings used dried mushrooms to burn fire. They discovered that sodium nitrate in urine made it very easy to make a fire. It was especially used on long voyages.

The greatest honour for a Viking was to being burned in a boat in the sea, when they were dead. Because they believed that the boat would take them to the heaven.

At that time, women were more freer than women in many countries of the world today. They had the right to divorce when they wanted…

Most of Viking men were not warriors, a large part was just dealing with farming.

The first “skiers” (exactly 6000 years ago) known in the past were Vikings. Of course they did it because it made transportation easy, not for sports 🙂

Although they were blonde in general, they were not all that way. The dark ones were using high-sodium soap-grade soaps to brighten their hair.

The average life span was 40 years.

Their most valuable assets were their swords. As we mentioned above, their swords were laid on them as they were burned on the boat.